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b-hebrew - Re[2]: Nomadic Scribes?

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  • From: Peter_Kirk AT SIL.ORG
  • To: mc2499 AT mclink.it, b-hebrew AT franklin.oit.unc.edu
  • Subject: Re[2]: Nomadic Scribes?
  • Date: Tue, 12 Jan 1999 17:55:09 -0500 (EST)



Dear Ian,

Thanks for yours. I will clarify a few points:

"I do have problems with your basic approach of what seems to be arguing for
the veracity of something by simply suggesting possibilities."

I am not so much arguing for the veracity of the accounts as arguing
against the proposition that they are impossible. Are you prepared to
accept the proposition (for example) "It is possible that an Israelite
named Moses was brought up at the Egyptian court and learned to read
and write"? If so, we can agree on that. If not, I can disagree with
you validly by suggesting possibilities. I would accept that we can go
further only if we accept the premise which Kitchen and I put forward:
"once the veracity of Ex. ii. 10a,11 is granted"; and that (unless
other evidence is found) such a premise can be accepted only by faith.

>Ian also wrote:
>
>>There is nothing to suggest the means of maintaining records in pre-exilic
>>Palestine.
>
>Well, if you don't accept even as suggestive evidence the physical
>survival on papyrus (which you did not dispute) of one of those
>records (see my separate posting),

"One cannot use such a text written in Phoenician script listing some
names and preserved as a palimpsest at Murabba'at as representative of the
means of maintaining records in a Palestinian context. Remember that, when
Lachish was under siege by the Assyrians, communications were passed on
using messages written in ink on pottery, suggesting that pottery sherds
were the more likely means of preserving texts."

""Suggestive evidence" is quite an interesting term. What place does it have
in a court of law where one is trying to establish facts?"

What I mean is, a "something" which would contradict your "nothing to
suggest" quoted above. I suppose the legal equivalent is
"circumstantial evidence", which is not enough to convict on its own
but which may be used to support a conviction. Thank you for reminding
me of further evidence of writing on pottery at Lachish, which is at
least "something to suggest" a means of maintaining records, on
pottery sherds. I think there is reasonable evidence that in
pre-exilic Israel sometimes papyrus, sometimes pottery was used for
written records. I know we can't prove much by this, but we can at
least disprove such theories as "writing on papyrus was unknown in
pre-exilic Israel".

Peter




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